Child is the unit of human life. Knowing and being can only be understood by revisiting some of this fundamental aspects of life- why, what and how children learn! Of course we will have to revisit
the very idea of 'learning' itself.
We need to pay attention on children only to understand how life has designed the human beings to 'be' in the world. The way one study the cell in order to understand life.
we have to observe their 'play' the 'toys' they make and observe the drawings children do autonomously.
There is a connection between what children experience, what children play (play includes making of 'toys' also) and what they draw and even the language/ words they use.
Children learn by imitation. This is an accepted statement by all in early childhood education. Then the questions we need to ask is are we worthy of their imitation. What qualities can children learn from adults to lead a meaningful and harmonious life? Do we have those qualities?
Children play teacher games because they see teacher teaching. But if we 'create knowledge' in front of the child, then the child will learn to 'create'. So the 'teacher' needs to become a learner if we want our children to be learners.
What about self respect, sensitivity, sustainability etc. If we end up using mere words children also end up learning to use the words instead of living it. It is the spirit of the adult that the child will imbibe. The very psychology or the position of 'teacher' exudes authority. Naturally children will imbibe the hierarchy implicit in the teaching paradigm.
If these questions are important then we have to re imagine what opportunity is being offered by children for our transformation. How do we step into their space with sensitivity, alertness and awareness to 'teach' them without teaching the spirit of freedom, sensitivity, and creativity so we have absolute respect for autonomy of life?
What the child learns, if left to itself is the way the world is. The world awakens the child to the workings of the world in the child. Each species does this by engaging with the world autonomously.
The process of being in the world is already in the new born in general terms and the particular space awakens the particular qualities, quite like the way child learns particular language. We are born with knowledge of life as well as knowledge of the species. The context awakens the particular qualities to root ourselves in that space.
So children are studying the way the world looks, the quality or the property of its materiality and the functions, processes and the various phenomenon that happen around them. This is the most scientific way of understanding the world around as well as sharpening the tools to understand the world and developing the qualities to be in the world. The integrity of the world is retained by this integral way of relating to the world. The holistic nature of the world awakens the holistic nature in the child.